Liver donation: surgical techniques

Efficient and technically sound graft procurement is an integral component of a liver transplant recipient's immediate and eventual outcome. Furthermore, the current era of organ scarcity increases the demand on the donor surgeon to extract the maximum potential from the existing pool, including the assessment and use of expanded criteria donors, nonheart beating donors, and the splitting of deceased donors to supply 2 recipients. The techniques described here represent the authors' combined experience with over 20 years and 3000 procurements. They are widely applicable to a broad patient population and can be routinely performed at donor hospitals without specialized equipment or staff.